LinkedIn & Twitter

[D.A.L.U.I.]

Our company started up on LinkedIn and now is considering Twitter.   What's your company doing on the new "constantly connected" angle, optional, mandatory?

I've got a LinkedIn account and don't quite see what it is supposed to accomplish--"feels" more like a job listing/search engine to me.  Twitter, too new to see--so far looks like it wouldn't be that much different than a BB message to other people in the system, just limited in length and no attachments, plus rather "individualized" news.  Hard to conceive of it as the "great" deal that the media makes it out to be.

[Tyler]

LinkedIN is great for finding people in your industry that you can connect with.  It works great for us sales people!

As for Twitter, unless your company is using it to market their products, I don't see a real use for it in the corporate world.

If they want to use Twitter for a communication tool, let me know so that I can pitch my product instead.

[PeripheralxMvmnt]

I can see where linkedin would be beneficial, and i can see where twitter would be cool if you were someone that was important enough to have people follow what youre doing or whats going on throughout the day, but just random people on it saying whats going on in their day..... i dunno. it just seems useless to me.   

[D.A.L.U.I.]

I got a tutorial on Twitter last night from my daughter who's been twittering for a while.  One thing that I see that could be done w/ Twitter that could work--and I don't know if this would also work for LinkedIN-- is that a company could create a Twitter account and use it for company announcements, new products, accomplishments, promotions, etc.  They would have to tell their clients that they could follow the company and keep up with the latest news regarding their business associate.  It is a chance to "stay in the customers face" and would compliment the grab and drag at trade shows I guess.

[BReady]

I can see where LinkedIn would be good within a company for finding help at other areas of the country.  We have an employee database which shows management an employee's experience and skillsets (sort of like a resume).  Instead of paying money to maintain something like that, I guess you can use LinkedIn to do the same.

But, I think its main reason is to network within your industry (or outside if you are looking to switch).

I haven't really found anything beneficial, yet, with LinkedIn (it seems it has been saturated with bajillions of job seekers already, so I am not sure if it's any batter than facebook, monster, etc.)

With that said, my name is Bill Ready if any of you want to add me (on linkedin and facebook).  The semiconductor industry is so bad these days that I doubt that I could offer any help.  But, maybe when it picks up the contacts on these social networking sites will be useful.

BReady

[BReady]

Oh, and I think there is a way to file share on linkedin as well (but I have the free account and I ftp whatever I need to be shared at work, so I don't know the specifics).  So, I guess that would be nice, but I am not sure what can be done that CAN'T be done already with "out of box" software, such as Netmeeting.

[D.A.L.U.I.]

Well, a week at the home office and now I've gotten the 4.5 upgrade to my BB, it has Blackberry Messenger--in effect a chat room for all BB users and our company is hooking everyone into it.  That way we can have chats--but even though I've used it, why not just call?
Too many connections , I can't get away from work and the "thoughts" of the moment of my boss and peers.  Most respect private time particularly the boss but a lot of them I suspect are going to use this to hassle everyone, particularly as Sunday afternoon runs on and they begin to plan out Monday and the week.  At least up to now, we're FREE on the plane--but that's going to go next I think!

[BReady]

I just upgraded to 4.5 myself a couple weeks ago.  I don't use the BB messenger much, but I have all my email accounts connected to it.  With out that phone I would be pretty lost when it comes to stuff I need to remember or recalling an email that was sent to me.  Especially when I am job hunting.  It's pretty cool when you can look, apply and followup on a job lead while in the middle of nowhere, you know?

Saintc, sounds like your on your company's BES and I don't know how the IT policies are setup up on your phone, but one of the coolest features I've found on 4.5 (it was actually on an older software rev but I had 4.2 before which didn't) is the ability to stream media on the web browser.  I have favorites links to news/talk stations (they have to be low bitrate if you are on the cell radio rather than wifi) and they play pretty good even on a GPRS (wicked slow) connection.  You could always do this with a laptop and BB tether but I think it's pretty cool that you could do it from the phone it self now.

BReady